Digital certificates are commonly used to authenticate users in computing systems to authorize access to computing resources. A digital certificate typically binds a credential with information identifying a user associated with the digital certificate. A computing system relies on the digital certificate to authenticate the user so that the user can thereafter access a computing resource by way of the computing system.
The credential typically includes a cipher and is issued to the user by an administrator that manages its uses. The administrator provides the credential and the information identifying the user to a certificate authority that generates the digital certificate in, for instance, an X.509 standard format.